Preslee's Birth Story

It has been forever since I've written here, but I have always loved writing out my birth stories and this is the easiest place to do it. So here it goes....Preslee Cate's Birth Story

From the beginning of this pregnancy I knew I wanted my labor to go much differently than Penelope's. With Penelope I never progressed and ended up getting induced with her and I really hated it. It took away from the experience and I regretted it so much. So I was really hoping that I'd go into labor on my own like I had with my first two. Also, I didn't want the epidural. Having done both natural and blocked births before I knew that my recovery would be quicker and easier. My schedule was pretty packed the week I was hoping she would come and I had had a feeling that I was going to go early so I decided to move two of my appointments that were scheduled for Friday the 15th up to earlier in the week, just in case. I had been having a lot of contractions and wasn't sleeping well but I kept telling myself that I could not go into labor until Friday or Saturday(August 15th-16th). I had my last photo shoot Wednesday evening and Peyton had her first day of Kindergarten on Thursday the 14th. All I wanted was to see her get onto her bus for the first time and be there for her. She was so cute and so excited and I know I would have been devastated if I had missed that moment. That evening(Thursday 14th) Brandt and I took the girls to a park about 2 miles from our house and while Brandt stayed and played, I speed walked home hoping to start something. The next morning I lost my plug and was having bloody show and I knew that I was going to go into labor that day. My good friend Valerie Boyd came over and we went for another 2 mile walk and I pushed Paisley and Penelope in my double jogger. By the time we got back I was having steady contractions. By 1:00 that afternoon they were consistent and about 7 minutes apart. Since I knew I was in labor I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chips muffins to take with me to the hospital. Best decision I ever made! Brandt had driven to school that day since he only had one scheduled patient and it was the last day of Summer semester and he had a week break before Fall semester started up(perfect timing!). For the rest of the day he kept asking me when we were going to head in and I just kept pushing the time back. I really wanted to stay at home as long as possible and my parents were driving 2.5 hrs to come and stay with the girls and I was hoping they would make it to our house before heading in. But by 6:40 the contractions were getting stronger and lasting longer and I knew I couldn't wait if I wanted to get both doses of the antibiotic before the baby came. So I called my friend Krissy and we headed over to her house to drop the girls off and then head to the hospital. We got to the hospital at 7:15ish and they rushed me right into a room. When they checked me I was at a 6. I was SO excited! About an hour later my friend Valerie Salin showed up to take pictures and just after that my friend Erin Allan came. I was super hesitant about having anyone in the room with me other than Brandt. I'm a pretty private person when it comes to stuff like that but I also REALLY wanted pictures to document the entire experience. I am so glad that they came and were there for me because when it got hard having the extra strength and support is what really got me through and kept me calm. By this point, my labor had stalled out. Contractions were coming 10 or more minutes apart and I was still at a 6. My nurse unhooked me from everything and I started doing lunges down the hall. Brandt and I even had a little race. When I had to be plugged back in to monitor everything I would jog in place or bounce on the birthing ball....anything to speed those contractions up! A little after 10 my nurse decided to check me again because I was having quite a bit of pressure and the contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart. I was between an 8 and 9 and baby was coming down. My water still hadn't broke but the doctor was in with another patient who was having some pretty serious complications, so we were patiently waiting for her to come and break it since the nurses cant. At 11:20ish I was given my 2nd dose of penicillin and was still waiting for the doctor. Luckily my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart because when they came they were intense with lots of pressure. Every time I would get a contraction Erin would massage my back and it really helped to relieve the pressure and take my mind off the pain. My nurse lowered the front end of my bed so I could sit in a squat like position to help relieve the pressure off my tailbone. She said that as soon as the doctor came and broke my water the baby would most likely come right out. Throughout everything I was able to keep smiling and laughing. My nurse told me that that was definitely not normal and that made me feel good! When I had gone naturally with Paisley it had been a pretty traumatic experience for both Brandt and I....so we were both pretty terrified. I knew I could handle the contractions, but those last 10 minutes were horrific and I can honestly say it was such an out of body experience with Paisley that I dont remember anything about it....so I had no idea what to expect and I was just praying that I didn't scream and react the way I did with her. Finally at 1:00 a.m. the doctor came and broke my water. I was still at a 9. I was so scared and excited at the same time because I knew that the end was coming and after being stuck at a 9 for so long I was so ready to just be done(my tailbone was hurting pretty bad by this point from all the pressure). The nurses had already gotten the room prepped and ready for baby and everything was in place and ready to go. The doctor stepped out to go back to the other woman having complications and said she would be right back. After my water was broken and the next contraction came I could feel her coming down and everything was stretching- worst pain I have EVER felt in my life. I'm pretty sure that at this point with Paisley I checked out. But this time I kept telling myself to breath and I remember every thought and what people were saying to me. I could feel myself start to panic and I had to keep reeling myself back in. I had gotten on my hands and knees and was pretty much paralyzed in pain and I remember saying out loud, "I cant do this anymore" and "Why did I do this to myself?" The nurse kept asking me to sit back up so I didn't fall off the bed and I kept telling her no....because I literally could not move, and she kindly got in my face- which I needed- and told me to get up and I finally did. As soon as I sat back and they got my feet up in the stir ups her head was right there and coming. With Paisley I dont even remember pushing. But with Preslee it felt so good to push and relieve the pressure. I just closed my eyes real tight and did what I had to do. Once her head came out I heard the nurse yell "Short cord, stop pushing!" Her umbilical cord was not only really short, but it was also wrapped extremely tight around her neck and she was completely blue. They tried to get the cord off of her neck but it was so tight they couldn't even get a finger under it. So I pushed her shoulders out... and they hurried and cut the cord. Her cord was so short they couldn't even put her on my stomach. She was born at 1:21 A.M. Preslee still had not cried, but I really wasn't too worried about it because #1 I was kind of in shock and #2 Paisley didn't cry at all when she was born either and there was nothing wrong with her. So I didn't really think much of it until they finally put her on my chest and I noticed how blue/purple she was. I could tell that she was trying to cry but couldn't. One of the nurses was rubbing her tummy really hard, kept flicking her cheeks and feet and thats when I realized that she was trying to get my baby to breath. I asked her if it was serious and she seemed pretty calm so I didn't freak out and then finally she started crying and within a couple minutes she pinked right up. The first thing I noticed about her was all her hair. I have never had a baby with so much hair before. And she had really long eye lashes! She was so beautiful with the cutest little button nose. I thought she looked the most like Paisley. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. was 19" long and had the biggest head out of all my babies at 14".
I can honestly say that I loved my labor/birth experience. It was perfect! My nurse was amazing. She was exactly what I needed. She told me that out of all her 11 years experience she has never seen anyone with the kind of control I had and that it was by far the calmest birth she has ever been a part of.  After having Paisley I never wanted to have another baby again. It really scared me. Not even a couple minutes after Preslee's birth I remember thinking to myself, "I could do this again." I asked Brandt how it was and he said, "That wasn't bad at all, I would do that again!" But…for the record, we are not planning on having another baby…just to let everyone know. The whole experience was so peaceful and calm. I felt such a strong connection with my baby girl.
My recovery was really good. My tailbone did hurt a lot for the first couple days. I really think it was bruised from all the hours of pressure. But other than that I felt so great afterwards! Preslee is almost a month now! She is so cute and we all love her so much. She is perfect!!

Farewell Summer

Maybe this makes me crazy...but I am dreading Fall. I used to think that Fall was my favorite season, and dont get me wrong, I still love Fall for so many reasons...but I LOVE Summer. And with Fall coming, Summer is pretty much over and that makes me so sad. I love Summer because going to the pool is one of our favorite things to do. The girls and I could spend hours there. Summer=Smores. Lake Days. Cherry Limeades. Bright Sunny Days. Ice Cream...every single night! BBQ's. Baseball Games. 4th of July. Birthday Fun. Family Vacations. No School. Longer Days....seriously I just love Summer. I love everything about it...even the summer heat. Farewell Summer...until next year!

Growing Up

Life is definitely much busier around here with our new schedule. I love it because Peyton loves it so much and she is having such a good time. And learning so much! She has had 2 days of preschool so far and I have already noticed little things she has learned. For the most part, when I pick her up she doesn't really say much about what they did or what she learned. She is always pretty tired and says, "Mom, I just don't want to talk about it right now." I am definitely catching a glimpse into her teenage years...yikes! The other night I heard her say "yes ma'am" and wondered where she picked that up from. And then tonight at dinner she turned to me and said, "Can I please be excused?" I wasn't sure I heard her right so I asked her to repeat herself and when she said it again I just started laughing. It was the cutest thing I have ever heard. I asked her where she learned that from and she said Miss Sara taught her. I love that she is learning manners! At bedtime Brandt and I heard her counting in Spanish- she got all the way up to 9. Paisley REALLY misses Peyton when she is gone and will ask me probably around 50 times "where is Teyton" or "where is my sister"? I feel so bad for her. She just doesn't know what to do with herself. She has started playing with Penelope a lot more, but that isn't always a good thing. She loves her a little too much. On Peyton's first day of preschool she brought home a craft she had made. It was a paper cut out doll she had glued together and colored. Paisley is so proud of it and carries it around every where to show everyone what her Teyton made for her. It is pretty cute. She wants to do everything that Peyton does. Penelope is definitely my third child. She has been so different from the first two. She has NO fears and is always finding trouble. I have never had to use a baby gate for stairs until now. I have never had to use electric outlet protectors until now. I have never had a baby that is so attached to me. But for the most part she is such a good easy going baby. She is very calm and observant. And out of all my kids she is the best at entertaining herself. I love her little personality so much and her sweet little smiles. She is very patient and tolerates a lot of rough housing from all the older kids. And as of 2 weeks ago, she hates to sleep. The only time she doesn't get upset about being put down for a nap is when she is in the car or in my baby carrier attached to me. She wants to be awake and playing at all times and doesn't even show the need for sleep. I sure do love my little girls!

Peyton's 4 year old photo shoot.

 

This little girl is definitely her father's daughter. She is obsessed with poop and all things potty talk.

Love her smiles and how she crinkles her eyes into little crescent moons.

These two have such a special bond

I love this picture

Paisley was splashing and throwing sand on everyone the entire day. Poor Penelope got the brunt of it.

Paisley's 3 year shoot

Not going to lie, I've been avoiding this thing. I feel like life has just gotten busy and I dont have time to get everything done that I want to so my blog overwhelms me.
On August 3rd Brandt and I spontaneously decided to jump in the car and head to my parent's house in Bazine, KS. We were originally not going to go since Brandt was studying to take National Boards on the 7th, but at 4 p.m. we both looked at each other and decided to just do it! So we got all packed up and headed out! It was the perfect little weekend. Brandt was able to study the whole time, I was able to visit with my family, and the girls had a blast with their cousins. After Brandt took boards he had a week off of school so we planned a trip to Utah. We left August 12th and drove the whole way there. Such.a.long.drive. We were in the car for 20 hours and didn't get to Utah until 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Yuck! We always have a fun time when we are with Adam and Brittany and our kids get along really well too! Highlights of the trip: Eating Cafe Rio, playing card/board games every night with Adam and Brit, getting to see Sara and her adorable kids, barbequing up the canyon, having Brit take our family pictures, visiting with Grandma Rella, getting to shoot a newborn shoot with Brit-seriously we would be a dream team if only we lived closer!, and running the Bountiful Triathlon. While we were there Brandt went to a dental conference held at BYU so he couldn't do the Tri with us, but it was a blast and I definitely want to do more!
Now that we are back home Brandt has officially started his 3rd year of dental school. And he PASSED his National Board Exam!!! I am so proud of him! Peyton starts preschool Sept. 3rd and has started gymnastics. I love watching her. She has such a determination to learn and do well at what she is doing. She tries so hard to do everything exactly how her coach tells her. She is really loving it and is always exhausted afterwards. Paisley is the sweetest little cuddle bug. She loves spending time with me and wants to do everything her big sister does.  Penelope is getting so big! She is crawling and starting to stand and definitely getting into EVERYTHING. She has an obsession with our stairs- scary!

Sisters

Grandma Rella & Paisley Rella

Playing up the canyon

Paisley screamed the whole time...poor baby! She had fallen asleep in the car on the way up the canyon and she did not like being woken up to take pictures. I am still so sad that we didn't get one with her cute little face but at least we can all look back at this picture and laugh some day.

Peyton and Penelope- they have the sweetest relationship

The Bike

Peyton loves her new bike! 

This picture cracks me up! She couldn't figure out how to use her brakes and started going faster than she was comfortable with...so what do I do while she is screaming for her life? I take a picture, of course!

This picture reminds me of my little brother, Jake.

I had to include this picture of Penelope I took earlier today. I love this girl!

Tubby time!

Celebrate Good Times!

During the month of June my dad stayed in Kansas City for a cancer treatment he was receiving. Luckily he was able to stay in the Hope Lodge, a home for cancer patients. He was supposed to be here for 30 days, but because my dad is superman, he was able to go home 2 weeks early! I know he didn't feel like superman, but I was so impressed with how well he handled his treatments and how strong he is! While visiting him at the Hope Lodge I noticed that most evenings an activity and dinner were provided so I called the director and asked if I could organize a dinner to be brought in. It turned out perfect because even though my dad got to go home early, he still had to come back for a check-up and he was able to attend the dinner. I had so many wonderful friends from my ward who volunteered to help bring meals. The director had told me to plan on feeding 30 people, but we had over 55!! I was definitely getting nervous. Luckily, we had enough food and everyone was so appreciative and grateful. It was such an amazing opportunity. Not going to lie though, it was very stressful hoping everyone would bring their food to me in time, trying to get there in work traffic, etc, but it was so worth it seeing everyone's faces and how grateful they were. I'm glad that my girls were there to be a part of it and I cant wait to do it again.

I love having my birthday so close to Brandt's. We pretty much celebrate all week. For my birthday we went out eat at Costa Vida and then Brandt took me shopping. I kind of hate shopping because I always go with high hopes of finding all these amazing outfits and come home with either clothes for the girls or just feeling depressed because nothing ever fits right. For Brandt's birthday I got a really good deal on tickets to a Royal's game. Since it was his birthday we splurged and got a corn dog, drink, and both girls snow cones. Peyton had been looking forward to that snow cone all week. She hadn't even had it in her hands for more than a minutes when, of course, she dropped it all over the ground and started screaming/crying. Everyone was looking at her and us, so I did the only thing I could and put her snow cone back into the cup since it was still intact. I was not about to waste that $5 snow cone! It was such a fun evening! On our way to our car I noticed that we had a sticker on our pop cup that said "One Refill" so I made Brandt run all the way back in. It was so hot and that was an expensive pop so I wanted to get our money's worth!

Penelope is now 6 months old. Time goes by so much faster with each kid I have. I don't know why but it has been a lot harder on me with Penelope getting bigger. I do not want her to grow up! She is the sweetest baby ever. She loves people. She is definitely a momma's girl, but she will let anyone hold her. I rarely get to hold her at church because people are always stealing her from me. She is always smiling and when she laughs, she grunts! People are always commenting on her sparkly eyes. She is always so content. She is SO curious about everything and loves to look around at everyone and everything. She is mobile and rolls and scoots everywhere. I just cannot get enough of her!!

For the 4th this year we took the girls to see Despicable Me 2....it was awesome!! We snuck in some candy and then bought some popcorn there. The girls had so much fun and loved it. Peyton was laughing throughout the entire movie. It was just such a good atmosphere. At the end of the movie the minions are all dancing to YMCA and everyone in the theater started clapping and doing the motions. Even Penelope enjoyed herself! That evening we went to a friend's house for a BBQ. They have an indoor swimming pool so all the kids were able to swim while the adults visited. It was a blast! They also have a pond in their backyard and Brandt was able to take the girls fishing. After everyone had finished eating we lit off a bunch of fireworks. Peyton loved them and Paisley was terrified. I had to take her back up to the house because she said they were "too loud". It was the perfect day.

This is just a random picture I took while babysitting for a friend. Peyton, Makayla, & Paisley out for a late night swim.

Peyton Turns Four!

I have so much to blog about! I'll catch up on everything later, but for now I wanted to write a quick post on Peyton's first friend birthday party. This year we decided to throw her a party since she had gone to so many others. She would always ask me, "Mom, when is my birthday party going to be?" so I figured it was only fair to throw her one too...and she LOVED it! She was sooo excited! I let her pick out the colors and she chose pink and gold....perfection! My wonderful friend Cassy found me the most perfect antique milk crate and surprised me with it for my birthday. She knew I had been searching for one and it was the perfect decor for Peyton's party! I didn't want to do anything too crazy so I let her invite 4 friends and we had it at the pool; easy entertainment! Everyone had a blast and it was definitely worth it, but I am so glad it is over! Brandt never wants to throw a party again. Brandt and I were up til about 2:30 a.m. getting everything ready. We would have been able to go to bed sooner but I messed up the first cake I made and had to start all over from scratch. Brandt ran to the store for me at midnight...what a guy! The second cake turned out much better!!

Pink lemonade! I was super bummed because we couldn't even use these jars at the pool since they are glass.

party favor bags

On Peyton's actual birthday we celebrated by going to Costa Vida/Orange Leaf per her request. For the last several months Peyton has been telling me that she wants makeup and a bicycle for her birthday. I found her a Disney Tangled make up set that came with fingernail polish and some lipglosses. She loved it! The lip gloss came with a brush so she felt very grown up putting it on and I liked it because it went on clear so she didn't look like a clown. After months of trying to find a bike on craigslist with no success, one of my friends asked if we needed any bikes. They had 2 small bikes they were going to give to goodwill, so we took one off their hands and put new training wheels on it. It was perfect and she loved it!